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I'm playing a couple of gigs with a small combo a week or so apart at the same place.
I don't know if these are the only Christmas songs we're playing (that we're mixing in with other stuff), but I was sent this list. I was told to bring both the tuba and the bass. Since I'll have both, I'm thinking of playing the ones - whereby I put a dart (>) in front of the title - on the tuba... UNLESS they play any of these "like so and so played them", and - thus - they are stylized.
What do you think?

Christmas Time is here
The Christmas song
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
>White Christmas
>O Christmas Tree
Blue Christmas
Feliz Navidad
Go tell it On the Mountain
Jingle Bell Rock
>Let It Snow
Rockin around the Christmas Tree
>Silent night
This Christmas

I don't know whether we will have lead sheets, or charts (lines and staffs), or nothing at all... (If we don't do any Christmas tunes other than the ones listed above, I can - thankfully - play at least all of these without the chord changes written down.)

I'm ASSUMING that we are playing a whole bunch of stuff that's NOT Christmas stuff, because the list above isn't even one sets worth, and apparently we're playing three sets. The emails' subject line is "jazz Christmas", so maybe we're playing a bunch of jazz standards and some Christmas songs...(??) I'm sure I'll know after the first of the two gigs is over.

I've played dixieland, "real book" jazz, standards, 70s and 80s funk, oldies rock, and dance sets with these particular people. I guess the main thing I'm worried about is not the Christmas stuff, but what else we're going to play. If we do any of the funk stuff, I need to study it because every one of those has a very specific set of bass lines. Is the bass isn't right, those tunes aren't right.

(I don't seem to ever get any communication other than "Here's some stuff we've never done before that we're going to do this week". I'm sure I'll get the hang of working with them. )

I've obviously lived a sheltered life.

I've NEVER listened to the Chicago (the band) Christmas album.

When I saw "This Christmas" on the list, I thought it was "So This is Christmas" (the bad, sing-songy Beatles tune with the chord changes that play themselves).

obviously not.

So I've listened to "This Christmas" a couple of times, got the changes (going from G to F, to E, later to B) as well as the repeated "hook" that happens at least three times.

I'm glad I looked it up on youtube.

...and I'm glad I've got a (B...?? B+...?? B-...??) set of ears (so I don't have try to find the chord changes online...but the gigmeister will have a lead sheet for me...or even possibly a part written in bass clef...?? ...but it's better to have - at least - HEARD it and played along with it "by ear" first).

(These sorts of gigs - at least, to me - are tons more fun that church gigs...even though they don't pay quite as much.)

I believe they did two Christmas albums and this is the second.

GC wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 4:33 pm I believe they did two Christmas albums and this is the second.

never too old to learn something (s)...

I had no idea Chicago had one much less two XMAS albums (and I have a lot of their albums), but then I’ve pretty much avoided rock band xmas albums. I had thought This is Christmas was just a John Lennon thing. I didn’t realize that was a Beetles tune. But then again every time I hear it (and geez I heard it played today on the radio )- in my head I’m imagining Bluto coming down the stairs of the frat house in Animal House and grabbing the guitar out of the lame guitar player’s hands and smashing it back and forth on the wall and then handing the mangled guitar back to the guy.

I just discovered something else about this particular band and bandleader:

He's been trying to send me Dropbox links for every song we've played on every gig (both the bass charts and the play alongs), but he's been misspelling my email address. Now that he knows that I've been sight reading most everything on every gig - and only mentioning tune names and the style we're playing them by the artist who recorded them, he's sort of impressed. LOL

Now that we've straightened that out, I'm getting the charts and the play alongs. The next gig will be easier.
As I've mentioned before, I really haven't played any bass guitar jobs in 40 years or so, so sight reading either lead sheets or parts written out on the staff at gigs is just a little challenging.

There's no end of stuff that pops up this time of year. Last year, among other things, our quintet did Mariah Cary's "All I want for Christmas is You." The bass line for the brass quintet is even eighths with nowhere to breathe... I did anyway.

This year I've got a church gig on which I'll play 1st trumpet and another quintet that introduces our Christmas concert, on which I'll play tuba except for the Hallelujh Chorus, which I wrote about a week or so ago . The quintet plays from the balcony as people are filing in. These are both traditional, carols without any pup stuff to lighten it up except we'll do Sleigh Ride in the concert. Last year I did You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch," from the balcony on tuba without asking. Some year when I get up the nerve, I'll do the screaming trumpet part. This year I've suggested we do Carol of the Bells. It's not hard and it sounds really nice with 2 good trumpets, which we have, though we'd have to sight read it. Tacit agreement for the balcony show -- no rehearsals. Too much other stuff already and the 1st trumpet has a 5 month old baby, the horn is the high school band director with her own concert to put on, the trombone runs the winter-cabin reservation system and does the maintenance and we're all rehearsing the Christmas Concert. Well, we pulled it off last year...

I like Bloke's play list except for Jingle Bell Rock. That is like an ear worm with fingerings that won't go away.When I hear is my fingers twitch.

@bloke, I'm wrong again. They've done FIVE Christmas albums (one is a greatest Christmas hits compilation), and this is from the first one. I goofed.

The first one also contains a really good version of Let It Snow, lead sung and arranged by Lee Loughnane, the trumpeter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cec0vf-ySSk&t=1s

I'm weak on top 40, funk, pop from the 70's and 80's...
I sorta tuned out on all of that around the end of the 1960's.
- garage bands went nowhere
- bar bands paid nothing ("door")
- rich middle-aged people (who paid decent for gigs) were into movie themes, bossa nova, standards, etc...
again: I've HEARD all of the 70's/80's stuff and can fake through much of it, but (to play it well, with the REAL bass licks, etc.) I need to go through the specific ones on set lists for upcoming gigs.